MONK
23rd May 2005, 14:04
DIMES (Distributed Internet MEasurements & Simulations) (http://www.netdimes.org/)
So what is DIMES..... well I'll let them explain
How does the Internet look like? How does it evolve?
DIMES is a distributed scientific research project, aimed to study the structure and topology of the Internet, with the help of a volunteer community (similar in spirit to projects such as SETI@Home).
Due to the way the Internet is engineered, distributing the Internet mapping effort is very important, and the only efficient way to measure the Internet structure is by asking you to participate. What we ask is not so much your CPU or bandwidth (which we hardly consume), but rather, your location. The more places we'll have presence in, the more accurate our maps will be. Understanding the structure and function of the Internet is an important research task, that will allow to make the Internet a better place for all of us.
The DIMES agent performs Internet measurements such as TRACEROUTE and PING at a low rate, consuming at peak 1KB/S. The agent DOES NOT send any information about its host's activity/personal data, and sends ONLY the results of its own measurements. Aside from giving a good feeling, running the DIMES agent will also provide you with maps of how the Internet looks from your home (currently) and will (in the future) provide you with a personalized 'Internet weather report' and other user-focused features.
Also it takes up very little bandwidth and very little CPU time. On 56K dialup that could peak at 14% bandwidth, of course on 512K Broadband it would be about 1.5% at peak times and only for a few seconds.
It even comes with user stats! (http://www.netdimes.org/data.php?userName=MONK) I found 4 ASes and AS links which were not known to the system before hand if you look on the top 20 list you can see how many you found that week. AS (acronym for "Autonomous System" which represent ISPs and other large networks which form the Internet.)
It also gives you some nice pictures to look at so you can see the internet in all it's linkedness.
http://home.gautrey.com/MONK/Internet-Country.JPG
http://home.gautrey.com/MONK/Internet-ISP.JPG
So what is DIMES..... well I'll let them explain
How does the Internet look like? How does it evolve?
DIMES is a distributed scientific research project, aimed to study the structure and topology of the Internet, with the help of a volunteer community (similar in spirit to projects such as SETI@Home).
Due to the way the Internet is engineered, distributing the Internet mapping effort is very important, and the only efficient way to measure the Internet structure is by asking you to participate. What we ask is not so much your CPU or bandwidth (which we hardly consume), but rather, your location. The more places we'll have presence in, the more accurate our maps will be. Understanding the structure and function of the Internet is an important research task, that will allow to make the Internet a better place for all of us.
The DIMES agent performs Internet measurements such as TRACEROUTE and PING at a low rate, consuming at peak 1KB/S. The agent DOES NOT send any information about its host's activity/personal data, and sends ONLY the results of its own measurements. Aside from giving a good feeling, running the DIMES agent will also provide you with maps of how the Internet looks from your home (currently) and will (in the future) provide you with a personalized 'Internet weather report' and other user-focused features.
Also it takes up very little bandwidth and very little CPU time. On 56K dialup that could peak at 14% bandwidth, of course on 512K Broadband it would be about 1.5% at peak times and only for a few seconds.
It even comes with user stats! (http://www.netdimes.org/data.php?userName=MONK) I found 4 ASes and AS links which were not known to the system before hand if you look on the top 20 list you can see how many you found that week. AS (acronym for "Autonomous System" which represent ISPs and other large networks which form the Internet.)
It also gives you some nice pictures to look at so you can see the internet in all it's linkedness.
http://home.gautrey.com/MONK/Internet-Country.JPG
http://home.gautrey.com/MONK/Internet-ISP.JPG